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WOMEN, WAR, AND TEXT; ORSOGNESE WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE IN A SECTOR OF THE ITALIAN FRONT IN WORLD WAR H. by Donna Martha Sudani submitted to the Faculty o f the College of Arts and Sciences of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology Chair Dr. William Leap Dr. Brett Williams Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Date/ ? 1997 American University Washington, D C. 20016 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9802492 UMI Microform 9802492 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION FOR DR. JUAN IILLAMARIN Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................iii Chapter 1. WOMEN, WAR, AND TEXT: THE RELEVANCE OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE TO THE HISTORICAL RECORD AND CULTURAL INTEGRITY.........................................I 2. ON ETHNOGRAPHIC PRACTICE.................................................31 3. TRANSLATING CULTURE........................................................... 63 4. ANALYSIS ...................................................................................... 105 5. THE ORSOGNESE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE AS AN INTEGRAL ELEMENT IN CONSTRUCTING A HISTORY 167 BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................197 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. WOMEN, WAR, AND TEXT: ORSOGNESE WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE IN A SECTOR OF THE ITALIAN FRONT IN WORLD WAR H. BY DONNA M. BUDANI ABSTRACT The narratives that women related to this researcher about their lives in Orsogna, Italy during and immediately after World War H all serve to articulate assumptions about the perceived nature of community. I use data drawn fi'om an examination of 150 narratives recorded in interviews, occurring in spontaneous conversations, and during field observations, as well as from an examination of my own reaction. These narratives allow listeners to participate provisionally in the disorder, dislocation, and privation experienced by the narrators in war. This study makes two significant contributions to our understanding of a community whose cultural fabric remained intact during extreme wartime conditions in one Italian sector. First, the narratives, as texts, reveal how women connected their experiences to the established cultural meanings of those experiences. That is, regular patterns of behavior occur as a result o f practices generated in social interaction. Second, the narratives reveal that what was said depends for its full meaning and interpretive power on what was unsaid—on beliefs, values, premises encoded in the cultural matrix of the community. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have been very fortunate to have known the Orsognese women I write about in different relationships; as neighbors, friends, and in some cases, as family. Their kindness, friendship, and trust have indelibly touched my life. I owe a special debt of gratitude to the Di Rado family whose generosity in my behalf made my research possible. I wish to thank my committee. Dr. Geoffrey Burkhart, Dr. William Leap, and Dr. Brett Williams, for their scholarly judgment, generously given comments and friendship, and their investment in me and my research. Their direction was invaluable in shaping this work. Their expertise in the artful craft of anthropology has and will continue to inspire me in all future endeavors. As my chairman. Dr. Burkhart deserves special thanks for his steadfast support during my fieldwork and the writing of this research. I owe Dr. Burkhart a special debt of gratitude that I can never adequately acknowledge. To Marilyn J. Madden and her mother, Mrs. Marguerite Madden, go special thanks. Marilyn Madden gave me encouragement, valuable intellectual insights that spurred my own thinking, and unwavering support that sustained me through the often trying process of completing what seemed to be an endless piece of work. Marguerite Madden welcomed me into her heart and her family. She provided the love and nurturing that always seemed to transform fatigue into energy. Without the kindness and generosity of the Madden family neither graduate school nor fieldwork would have been possible. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. IV To all these people, my deeply felt thanks; my sisters, Laura Jacobellis, Anna Marie Torre, and Antoinette Sudani kept my spirits from flagging at crucial moments. My daughter Angela Phillips-Mills and my son Gregory Sudani Phillips provided consistent warm support and a sense of humor for which I am eternally grateful. To my editor and friend Margaret Powell goes my sincere appreciation for generously reading draft upon draft. Her critical insights and editorial expertise helped me craft my ideas. Her enthusiasm persuaded me to go forward even when I was tempted to do otherwise. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1 WOMEN, WAR, AND TEXT; THE RELEVANCE OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE TO THE HISTORICAL RECORD AND CULTURAL INTEGRITY. Introduction In January 1988, 1 went to Italy to visit my prospective field site, Mozzogorgna, a village in the Apennine mountains in Abruzzo. Mozzogorgna is the natal village of my paternal grandparents who migrated to America in 1907 and returned to Mozzogorgna in 1930. My grandparents were caught in the thick of the battle for the Sangro River Valley during World War EE. Fighting in Mozzagorgna, as in other villages and towns in the Abruzzo, was fierce and often marked by hand-to-hand combat. My grandparents endured many hardships during as well as after the war. Although both are now deceased and I have no other relatives in the village, I had hoped to gather data there about women’s experiences during the war. My primary purpose was to establish the validity of women’s experience as valid data in completing any fully authentic record of the impact of the war on a village caught in the battle zone I contacted the Cerchio family (a pseudonym)who had cared for my grandparents after the war until their deaths in the 1950s. I spent a month in the Cerchio household conducting preliminary research. Unfortunately, due to issues related to my grandfather’s transfer of valuable property to their family, the Cerchios evidenced deep concern that my visit implied a potential legal challenge to my grandfather’s will. Under Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. these circumstances, it was manifestly impossible to conduct ethnographic research in the manner characteristic of anthropological inquiry. Facing the question of whether I would be able to carry out my research program in Italy, I took advantage of an invitation to visit the nearby town of Orsogna. On my train journey to Mozzagorgna from Rome, I happened to meet a woman who had migrated to New York City with her family in the 1950s and later returned to Abruzzo in the 1970s as a wife and mother of two small children. As I told her about my research, Regina (a pseudonym) had invited me to visit with her in Orsogna. She told me